


naxzela

by discordiansamba



Series: abyss of memory [9]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blade of Marmora Keith (Voltron), Galra Keith (Voltron), Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-03
Updated: 2019-05-03
Packaged: 2020-02-16 10:29:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18689683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/discordiansamba/pseuds/discordiansamba
Summary: Finding his place among the paladins after losing his memories hadn't been easy. After finding it again, Keith vowed that he wouldn't let anything take it- or them- away from him.He meant it.





	naxzela

**Author's Note:**

> As promised, I am back with the new installment! It's time to cover everyone's favorite near-tragedy, Naxzela! I actually ended up writing two different false starts to this installment, and ended up erasing both before I finally settled on doing it like this. And honestly? I'm glad I did. What I ended up with is just so much better than either of the two preceding versions. Sometimes it really is worth it!
> 
> It's only a oneshot update this time around- I hope to tackle season five sometime soon. I know there's at least three different perspectives I want to write, none of which should be all that hard to guess. So stay tuned!

* * *

"Are you sure about this?"

Shifting on his feet, Kethe gave Allura a weak smile. "I'm sure."

Behind him, he heard Shiro sigh. He ignored it, resting a hand on one of the red lion's forelegs, staring up at her. Truthfully, he wanted to be the one to pilot the red lion into battle, but he knew that this time it would be better if it was Allura. The mission that lay before them was one that could make or break the Voltron Coalition- and the entire rebellion against the Galra Empire as well.

If it worked, they would be able to take back one third of the Galra Empire's territory. If it failed...

...then countless numbers of people would lose their lives in vain. People were going to die either way, Keith knew- but at least a victory would give those deaths meaning.

"I'm still not sure if this is a good idea." Shiro said. "This is a critical mission, and you have a stronger bond with the red lion. It should be you, Keith."

Kethe shook his head. "I understand how important this mission is, but that's exactly why Allura needs to be the one flying the red lion. She's its public face. There's no way that she can coordinate the Coalition's assault and pilot the red lion at the same time. People will start to suspect something."

"He does have a point." Allura admitted. "I am afraid we have come too far with this lie to tell the truth now."

Turning back towards Shiro, Kethe watched as he heaved another sigh, this one a lot more resigned than the previous one. "You're not exactly wrong, but this _still_ doesn't feel right. We can't keep lying to the Coalition forever."

"I'm not sure what choice we have." Kethe said. "Though I guess that's my fault."

_He_ had been the one to insist on the farce in the first place. It had been one of the conditions he'd put before the paladins before he'd joined them- or _re_ joined, as the case may be. The universe wasn't ready to accept a Galra paladin, and it especially wouldn't be ready to accept a paladin who had been imprisoned and tampered with by Haggar, Zarkon's very own witch.

"Just promise me you'll stay safe out there." Shiro said, reaching out to give his shoulder a light squeeze. He didn't flinch away from the touch as he once might have, phoebs ago. "Senfama will be dangerous."

"So will Naxzela." Kethe pointed out. "If anything I'm probably going to be a lot safer now that I'm _not_ going there."

Shiro snorted faintly. "Alright, point taken."

"I'll stay safe." Kethe promised. "You two should try and keep out of trouble yourselves. Especially you, Allura. If Red comes back here with even a single scratch on her..."

Allura merely chuckled, viewing his threat as the farce it was. "I promise, no harm will come to her."

"Good." Kethe nodded, his tail twitching behind him. "I should probably meet up with Kolivan and the other Blades."

"Good luck." Shiro said. "We'll see you on the other side."

Kethe nodded, pausing for a tick to look back up towards the red lion. He could feel her in the back of his mind, a mixture of wishing him well on his mission, and expressing regret that he wouldn't be the one flying her this time. She didn't seem to have any qualms about letting Allura pilot her, but she definitely had a preference.

She never seemed to understand the need for all the farce- _she_ never had a problem with him being Galra. She had known it from the start, even when he'd had a more human appearance, and hadn't known a thing about his maternal heritage. When he made his way back to her, his appearance now more Galra, and having no memories of his paternal heritage, she hadn't thought twice about letting him back in.

From the start, the red lion had been his strongest supporter. Even when he hadn't been able to believe in himself, she had- he didn't know if he could have even gotten through those fist few quintants without her guidance. It had been so hard to navigate the gap between everyone's expectations of him and his reality, but he'd managed thanks to her. On his worst days, he'd been able to retreat into her cockpit, where he didn't have to think about anything- not about being human, or about his forgotten life.

He'd come around to everyone eventually, but for awhile it really had just been him and the red lion.

"Yeah. You should break a knee or whatever." Kethe said.

"Leg." Shiro corrected. "The word you're looking for is _leg_."

"I would rather not break that either, thank you." Allura said quickly, before she paused, crinkling her nose. "Unless that is another one of your strange Earth sayings."

Kethe shrugged. "Lance said it was something you said to wish people good luck."

Although sometimes he wondered if Lance was just making stuff up, taking advantage of the fact that he didn't know any better. Allura was right- a lot of these Earth sayings made no sense. Why would telling someone you wanted them to break their leg give them good luck? It just sounded like you wanted them to be hospitalized and suffer.

And yet, he couldn't stop saying them.

"It does." Shiro assured them. "Although usually it's meant for stuff like stage shows."

"Oh," Kethe frowned, tilting his head, "-good luck, then."

That said, Kethe ducked out of the red lion's hangar. He had already kept Kolivan waiting a little longer than he had intended, and the last thing he wanted was for them to take off for Senfama without him. Maybe he wouldn't be able to fly the red lion this go around, but at the very least, he wanted to be doing _something_.

He grimaced a bit, his thoughts turning to Akira. The clone had made it sound like he was fine staying on the bridge with Coran and helping monitor communications, but they didn't need to be based from the same person for him to know he was lying.

But it was also true that his condition prevented him from doing anything else. It was a testament to just how bad a state he had been in when he'd first arrived that even a full phoeb of proper care had only just begun to put a dent into it. He probably wouldn't even be up and moving around now if it hadn't been for the healing pod.

That, at least, he was doing. He didn't often leave the Castle of Lions, but he had started to become a more regular face around the ship, whereas before he spent most of his time hiding away in his room. He still lived on the detached residential floor by himself, but they were definitely seeing a lot more of him lately, ever since they'd had the chance to talk.

There hadn't been a whole lot of opportunities to do so after he'd picked his name, not with the Naxzela plan beginning in earnest barely even a day after. Between gathering intelligence and building an army, there had barely been time for anyone to have anything close to a personal life.

It had been a welcome change for him, after a phoeb of sitting around and doing nothing. While he couldn't exactly help the other paladins recruit Coalition members, he was able to join the scouting missions- gathering intelligence about the planets that still needed to be freed was of critical importance. They needed to know exactly what they were dealing with, and plan accordingly- if even one strike team failed, they would be facing a potentially dangerous situation.

His task now took him away from the paladins again, but at least it had been of his own choosing this time. He would be joining Kolivan's strike team, which would target the Zaiforge cannon located on the planet of Senfama. They would need to requisition both it and a second cannon, orbiting Teq, before the Coalition forces could advance.

It wasn't flying a lion, but it was no less important.

He briefly considered swinging by the bridge first, to check on Akira, before he dismissed it. It wasn't like he didn't care- he did, actually, to a surprising degree. Hunk had called his odd desire to look after and protect his own clone a _big brother instinct_ , which just sounded a little presumptuous to him. They hadn't exactly managed to figure out where it was they stood with each other, even if having a brother _did_ sound kind of nice.

(He tried not to dwell on the fact that he'd had a brother once before. Shiro was still here- _he_ was the one who had changed.)

So it wasn't that he didn't care. It was just that he didn't have the time.

Besides, Akira had one of the safest roles in the entire operation. The Castle would be all the way back on the other side of the galaxy from Naxzela, far from any actual combat. He could just talk to him when he got back.

* * *

Akira shifted on his feet, his gaze flicking from screen to screen. There were dozens of them on display, each for a different strike team. The most central of them was for Voltron, and right now it was monitoring the real time progress of Pidge and Hunk, who were on their way to disable a vital Galra coms station. If they couldn't, the entire plan would fall apart before it even began, and they would lose their one chance to take Naxzela.

He didn't think they would.

It was a strange kind of confidence, one given to him by memories that weren't his. Some of it was based off his own experience, but most of it came from his implanted memories.

_Keith's_ memories.

He turned his head, attention fixing itself on the display that had been set up to monitor the pair of Zaiforge cannons. He'd been surprised to learn that Keith _wouldn't_ be joining the paladins- instead, Allura was taking his place as acting red paladin.

"Nervous?" Coran asked, causing him to jump.

Glancing back towards him, Akira nodded. "I guess."

_Worried_ , more like. This was a dangerous operation. If things went wrong, people could die. The paladins could die.

_Keith_ could die.

There was a lot of stuff he still wasn't sure about, but he knew he didn't want any of that to happen. He didn't want anyone to die, but Keith least of all- they had barely even had a chance to get to know each other. That, and there was the selfish part of him that was completely _terrified_ of the prospect of him dying, since it meant he would never be free of the burden of his memories, but mostly it was just the fact that he didn't want him to die.

But he didn't say that. Couldn't, actually. He was slowly starting to understand what Keith had said when he told him that the paladins were an odd bunch, but he still had trouble grasping the idea that he was allowed to be worried about them. He didn't want to assume that they were all friends just because he had the face and memories of someone they all knew.

Well, sort of. It was complicated.

"Can't say I blame you!" Coran said. "Why, it's been ten thousand deca-phoebs since I was last involved with anything of _this_ scale!"

Akira blinked, taking a second to register that as a joke. Ten thousand years was a lot of time for someone who had barely even existed for _one_ \- his eighteen years of not-memories aside.

"I just wish I could be doing something _more_." Akira mumbled, a hand straying down to the hem of his Olkari tunic. It was made of pretty sturdy stuff, but it was already starting to fray at the edges from all his constant fiddling- maybe once this was over, he could ask Coran if he could go through the clothing stores again to find something that wouldn't.

(He could just stop fiddling, but that sounded hard.)

He'd gone through them once before, looking for a pair of shoes. He'd found a pair of long boots whose bright orange and aquamarine color scheme had caught his eye and had fallen instantly in love with them. It didn't hurt that the material they were made of was both sturdy and comfortable, a world away from what he'd had when he was a Galra prisoner.

He quickly discovered that Lance, at least, not only hated the color scheme, but was also incredibly vocal of that fact. He'd done his best to shrug it off- it wasn't his problem if Lance had no fashion sense. If anyone else took issue with his choice, they at least had the tact not to say anything.

(He was confident it was Lance who had no fashion sense, not him. How could he when he wore such dull colors? They were so _boring_.)

"Ah, lad," Coran said, patting him on the shoulder, "-I know how you feel. But I promise, you're doing more than you think you are."

Akira frowned, staring at his feet. It didn't _feel_ that way.

He knew the reality was that there just wasn't much else he could do. He knew how to fly in theory, but his first lesson with Coran had been an almost literal crash course in just how much the red lion had been guiding him. He just didn't have the reflexes or the instincts, but kept thinking he did, conflating his not-memories with actual memories in the heat of the moment.

Fighting was completely out of the question. He'd never thrown a single punch in his admittedly short life, and though he was confident that he knew _how_ , right now he couldn't beat an _Arusian_ , nevermind a Galra. He just hadn't recovered anywhere near enough for any kind of intense physical activity, which going to war definitely was.

Unfortunately for him, he'd entered the stage of his recovery where he was just well enough for that to chafe at him. He felt like he should be doing something more than he was- especially since the reason he had been created in the first place was to help destroy Voltron. He wanted to prove that he was more than that- that even if he wasn't a paladin (and he wasn't sure he even _wanted_ to be)- he could still be a vital asset to the resistance.

"Yeah," Akira said, his words clipped, "-guess you're right."

Coran's smile was weak, like he sensed he didn't quite buy his sentiment. But he didn't say anything, instead patting his shoulder again and breaking away.

Akira sighed, turning his attention back towards the screen that monitored the Zaiforge cannons. Feeling powerless wasn't exactly something he was unfamiliar with- that had pretty much been his entire life while he'd been confined to that cell. He just wished he could _stop_ feeling that way.

Breathing in, Akira squared his shoulders. _Patience yields focus_. He knew those word weren't meant for him, and yet he still found himself drawing strength from them sometimes.

He'd get there. He would. He just had to be patient first.

(Being patient, he quickly decided, sucked.)

* * *

"We've reached Senfama."

In spite of himself, Shiro managed to crack a smile at the sound of Keith's voice on the coms. "Good to hear it. Pidge and Hunk have just about reached the rendezvous point. We'll begin our assault on Naxzela as soon as you've acquired the cannon on Senfama."

"So no pressure." Keith half-joked.

"No pressure." Shiro assured him. "Good luck."

"With Kolivan in charge?" Keith asked. "I don't think we'll need luck."

He actually chuckled at that. He'd had the privilege of seeing Kolivan in action only a handful of times, but that had been enough. He wasn't just a skilled leader, but was also an excellent fighter- maybe not on par with Zarkon, but he suspected the Galra Emperor was being unfairly fueled by quintessence.

Keith might not be on the mission with them, but they still had him linked up to their coms. They also had the main coms, but this was a separate line, one that wouldn't be picked up by the rest of the Coalition. They still knew him strictly as Kethe, the Blade of Marmora's liaison to Voltron.

"Is he really that good?" Akira's voice suddenly cracked over the coms, surprising pretty much everyone, who hadn't expected him to talk much.

"Regris says there's only one combatant in the Blade of Marmora that's better than him." Keith stated. "So yeah, he's pretty good."

Shiro's smile fell a bit at the mention of the Blade. He was in charge of leading one of the liberation strike teams. Pidge and Hunk had finally finished a rudimentary prosthetic for his missing tail, and while a week wasn't anywhere near enough time to completely adjust to it, he'd still chosen to throw himself into the fray. He was kind of surprised how worried he was about him, since he'd sort of been avoiding him through no fault of Regris' own.

Talking to the person he felt had replaced him was just... awkward. So he didn't.

"Okay, is it just me, or is anyone else having trouble telling the twin's voices apart?" Lance asked.

"We're not twins." Keith replied, almost automatically.

"Well I can't call you both _clones_ ," Lance said, and he could almost hear him roll his eyes, "-since only one of you is actually a clone. So twins."

Akira's meek reply was drowned out by Hunk, who hadn't so much tried to cut him off as it was just that he had chosen to start speaking at the same time he did. "I don't know, they sound kind of different. Akira's raspier."

"Gee, thanks." Akira rasped.

"It's probably just the trauma." Shiro tried to reassure him. Hunk did have a point though- Akira's voice _was_ a bit raspier than Keith's. "I wouldn't worry about it."

"Well I still think they're too close. It's confusing." Lance huffed. "Pidge, do you think you can rig up like, some kind of voice modulator thingy or something?"

"We're about to go into a life or death battle, and you want me to whip up a voice modulator." Pidge dryly remarked. "I mean I _could_ , but that doesn't exactly seem like the best use of my time right now. Besides, Hunk's right. They do sound different."

Lance grumbled. "Okay, fine. I get it."

"Paladins," Allura lightly chimed in, "-not to interrupt, but we should probably try and be a little more focused on the task at hand."

"Allura's right." Shiro said. "Naxzela's going to be tough. We'll need to focus all of our attention on it."

"I'll let you know as soon as the Senfama cannon is ours." Coran piped up. "Good luck, princess."

"Thank you, Coran." Allura said.

"What, no good luck wishes for us?" Lance asked.

"Oh, right. Good luck, paladins!" Coran said, almost as an afterthought.

"...luck." Akira mumbled, half unheard over Coran's more boastful wish.

Shiro smiled to himself. Maybe this situation wasn't ideal, but right now, he didn't think about that. Instead he focused on what a sign of progress even that meek wish of good luck was for Akira. The ugly feelings of loss were kept at bay by the brighter feelings of anticipation, and his desire to see how far Akira would come over these next few weeks.

Of course, he needed to make it back from Naxzela alive to see any of that. Resolved, Shiro drew in a deep breath, feeling his bond with the black lion.

"Alright, paladins," Shiro said, "-let's start our approach."

* * *

For a time, everything seemed to be proceeding smoothly, or close enough to it.

They'd had some trouble with the Zaiforge cannon orbiting Teq- the rebel forces just didn't have the firepower to break through the shields on the cannon's defensive turrets. Thankfully, they'd been able to obtain the Senfama cannon for their usage, and that _definitely_ had more than enough of the required firepower to break through the shields.

By the time the com station came back online, nearly every Galra occupied planet had been either pacified or totally liberated by the Coalition forces. There were no Galra left to send out distress signals- except for Naxzela.

Naxzela was taking a little longer.

Anxiously glancing up towards the sky, Kethe's tail twitched behind him. _Someone_ had responded to Naxzela's distress call- but it was only just a single cruiser. What worried him is that whoever was in command of it clearly had the authority to remotely shut down both Zaiforge cannons. He hoped it was just some high ranking commander, and not Zarkon himself. He should still be distracted with searching for Lotor.

"Any word from Voltron?" Kethe asked.

"Nothing." Akira replied, a few ticks shy of a prompt response. "We're picking up a lot of magnetic distortion from Naxzela. Coran says that could be blocking communications."

Kethe frowned. Somehow he didn't like the sound of that. He suddenly regretted not joining them, letting his fear of exposure get the better of him. He knew Allura was more than a capable pilot- she'd been piloting the red lion for several phoebs while he had been missing in action- but just sitting here, waiting for something to happen didn't feel right.

Heaving a sigh, his shoulders slumped. He was the one who'd chosen this- he couldn't regret his decision now.

Besides, he was sure they were fine. It was just one cruiser, and even Shiro had said that it was almost too late. By the time it got within firing distance, Naxzela would probably already be secure.

So why didn't it feel that way?

* * *

Much as she never let it get the better of her, Allura was no stranger to fear.

There had been the more trivial fears of her youth- which all felt rather silly to her now, but had been very real to her then. As she grew older, so did her fears- and when the war began, they had blossomed, almost taking on a life of their own. When she woke to a universe at war ten thousand deca-phoebs later, that same fear woke with her.

But she never let it control her. They had faced dire situations before, and had always somehow managed to come out of them- if not always on top. She had known from the start that the bigger the plan, the higher the stakes were- so it wasn't that she thought taking back one third of the Galra Empire would be easy. Far from it.

She had just underestimated the lengths the Galra were willing to go to in order to win.

"Victory or death." Allura breathed. "We should have anticipated something like this."

"We couldn't have known about the terraforming facility. This isn't your fault, Allura." Lance tried to reassure her, even as they raced upwards, sentries hot on their heels.

It was an easy task for the moment- the inside of the massive rods that ran down into the planet's core seemed to be the only place free from the gravitational effects of the energy field that now covered Naxzela.

"I know." Allura admitted. "Right now we have to focus on getting out of here and warning everyone."

Easier said than done- their earlier attempt had been to no avail. Even worse, she suspected that the energy field that kept them trapped here would also prevent them from contacting the outside world. She could only hope that someone would notice that something was wrong, and find the source of it. She had tried shutting down the terraforming plant, but it had been to no avail- whatever was powering them was stronger than she was.

She suspected she knew just who it was.

"It _has_ to be that cruiser." Pidge said. "If we can just find some way to take it out-"

"Yeah, but we have to find a way to get off Naxzela first." Hunk reminded her. "Shiro? Any ideas?"

Shiro shook his head, his expression grim. "I don't know. But we have to keep trying."

"I can't get in touch with anyone either." Pidge said, confirming her worst fears. "Maybe once we get out of this rod and back to our lions, I might be able to, but somehow I doubt it."

Allura bit her lip. The situation was looking grimmer by the second. She had to wonder if Naxzela was a trap from the very beginning- if the only reason the Galra had allowed them to take back so much occupied territory was because they knew they would eventually have to target Naxzela. And when they did...

Pidge's projections had been very grim indeed.

If they didn't manage to stop it, then several solar systems would be destroyed in the ensuing explosion. Coran and the rebels on the farthest fringes might survive, as would the rebel and Blade strike teams sent to take over the Zaiforge cannons. But anyone else-

-wait. Hold on a tick.

"I _think_ I may know a way to get word out." Allura said.

"We're listening." Shiro told her.

"Keith and I both have a connection to the red lion. If I can tap into that, I might be able to send him a message." Allura explained.

"Do you think that'll work?" Hunk asked. "I mean, he's all the way on Senfama, right? That's pretty far."

"I cannot say for certain." Allura admitted. "It has never been tried before."

Then again, there had never been two _active_ paladins for one lion before either. The situation with Zarkon and the black lion had been quite different from the shared arrangement she had worked out with Keith.

"It's worth a shot." Shiro said. "The faster we can warn everyone, the better our chances are."

Allura nodded. Lance and Hunk each offered her a hand, and she took them without thinking about it. She gripped them both tight as they came up to the planet's surface, allowing them to guide her as she attempted to tap into her bond with the red lion, reaching out in hopes of being able to connect with Keith.

She could feel the red lion, and after a few ticks of struggle, she could feel Keith, too. For a tick she swore she felt someone else aside from him, but they slipped from the connection quickly enough and she just didn't have the time to worry about anything other the message she needed to send.

Reaching out to Keith, she prayed that it would be enough. She couldn't let the plan that should have been the start of their salvation become the instrument of their demise.

* * *

Later, when everything was over, Kolivan would tell him that his body had gone completely rigid upon receiving Allura's message. It wasn't something he realized at the time, or even after, suddenly and without warning feeling as if he had been flung from his own body. He tried to open his eyes, but couldn't- the only thing that kept him from panicking was the fact that he could feel the comforting rumble of the red lion.

_"Keith."_

It took him a second to recognize it as Allura's voice. It sounded distorted. He tried to open his mouth to call out to her, but he couldn't.

_"Keith, if you can hear me, then you need to listen to me."_ Allura continued, seemingly without waiting for a reply. _"Naxzela is a bomb. We believe that cruiser that was approaching Naxzela has something to do with it."_

There was a pause then, though somehow he could sense that Allura was still there.

_"Haggar is there."_

Kethe's eyes snapped open, their connection snapping with it. He could feel his blood boiling inside of hm, the edges of his vision turning red.

_Haggar_.

He remembered next to nothing of his time as Haggar's prisoner, a small mercy given what she had done to him. Ever since he had first glimpsed his human face, he was certain that his transformation into a Galra had been painful. Meeting his clone had only further cemented that.

His memory of his time with her might be long gone, irretrievable, but the feelings were still there. Anger, hate, and a gnawing fear that he didn't want to admit to feeling, a terror that had likely grown slowly, once he realized what was being done to him. Though distant to him now, he could still remember the terror of waking up and realizing he knew nothing at all- not about himself, nor even where he was or _what_ he was.

The only thing he had known was fear and hate for the witch.

He took in a deep gulp of breath, burying them. He didn't understand what Allura meant by Naxzela being a bomb, but he'd understood the latter part of her message clearly enough. The cruiser had stopped, just shy of Naxzela, which in itself was pretty suspicious. Allura's warning had just confirmed it.

After a quick exchange with Kolivan, he found himself a ship. A Galra fighter, which wouldn't do much good alone. He didn't understand what was going on, but he knew he needed help.

"Matt?" Kethe began, opening a com line to the Zaiforge cannon that was orbiting Teq. "I think we have a problem."

"What kind of problem?" Matt asked.

"I don't know." Kethe shook his head, before remembering he couldn't see it. "I got a weird message from Allura. Something about Naxzela being a bomb."

"A bomb!?" Coran yelled, and Kethe nearly jumped out of his skin, his tail sticking straight up, the fur at its tip puffing up. "What do you mean, a bomb?!"

Right. He'd forgotten Coran was on the paladin line too- a line which aside from his link to the Castle, was almost eerily silent.

"Like I said, I don't know." Kethe told him. "All I know is that we have to stop that cruiser."

"Copy that." Matt said. He could sense the tension in his voice. He was probably worried about his sister. "We're right behind you."

"Thanks." Kethe said- and he meant it. A single Galra fighter just didn't have the firepower necessary to take down a Galra cruiser on its own. But with the rebel ships backing him up, he might have a chance.

"Also," and this he only said after switching to the paladin-only line, "-we think Haggar is there."

There was a lengthy pause of silence, until Akira's voice broke it. "Haggar?"

That single name was filled with emotion. There was the anger, the hate, the fear that Kethe himself was so familiar with- but also an underlying note of pain that he didn't, and probably couldn't understand. They had both suffered at the hands of Haggar, and had both, in a sense, been made by her- but Akira had been _literally_ so.

Made, and then tossed out like scrap when he wasn't what she wanted.

"Be careful, Keith." Coran warned. "You know what happened the last time you-"

"I know." Kethe cut him off. He didn't need a reminder. "I'll be careful."

Akira said nothing. He bit down on his lip, debating asking him if he was alright, but that seemed like something that should be done on private. Not on a com line that was shared by multiple people, even if he couldn't get into contact with most of them. It didn't feel right.

Coran was there, he reassured himself. He was perceptive. If something was wrong, he'd notice. He just needed to concentrate on that cruiser.

_Just_ on the cruiser, he reminded himself. No matter how much he wanted Haggar dead, his priority was doing what he could to stop that bomb. He couldn't let it hurt the paladins or the princess. Not after he had finally found his place among them, after so much self-doubt and struggle.

He had sworn to do whatever it took to protect it- and them- and he meant every word of it.

* * *

Sure enough, Akira's gaze was rooted on the screen with the cruiser.

His already pale skin was even paler, and for a tick, Coran wasn't sure the lad was even breathing. Then slowly, his chest rose then fell, and Coran felt himself take a breath of relief at the sight. Akira's lips moved, but no sound came out. Coran was willing to bet anything that what he had silently mouthed was none other than Haggar's name.

Coran frowned, looking between him and the screen which monitored Voltron. It was currently offline- at first he thought it was simply due to the magnetic distortion from Naxzela, but now he wasn't so sure. Or perhaps it _was_ offline due to that, but it was the _reason_ for the distortion that he should be concerned about. He wasn't sure how Allura had sent a message to Keith, but he saw no reason to doubt it.

He wanted to, though. If Naxzela was truly a bomb, then it would come with a massive detonation. He couldn't imagine how much damage something like that could do.

And Allura was right in the middle of it.

Yet here he was, all the way on the other side of the galaxy. He didn't even have enough of Allura's essence left to work the teleduv, otherwise he would be on his way to Naxzela in the blink of an eye. From here, there was nothing he could do.

Not about Naxzela, anyways.

Looking back towards Akira, Coran's frown deepened. If just hearing Haggar's name had thrown him into this deep a state of shock, then clearly his trauma was worse than he could have possibly imagined. He couldn't imagine just what sort of feelings he held for Zarkon's witch.

"Akira-"

"What if she knows I'm here?" Akira suddenly spoke, cutting him off.

Coran frowned, moving to stand next to him. "Haggar, you mean?"

Akira opened his mouth to say something, but either he decided against it, or he couldn't. He shut it, nodding his head, his eyes disappearing behind a veil of hair.

"We've no reason to think she would." Coran assured him. "The scans-"

"What if the scans are wrong?" Akira asked. "What if-"

Coran placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, shaking his head. Though Akira flinched under his touch, he let it remain there. "No good comes from going down that path."

Akira looked up, peeking out from behind his bangs. Even under the bright light of the Castle's crystal, his eyes appeared dim. The effect was a bit eerie, if he was perfectly honest, sending his mind back to a different time, long before any of the paladins had been born, before the war.

Though they had the technology to do so, cloning had been banned on Altea- and Daibazaal as well, as a matter of fact. It was believed that creating an exact replica of any living being went against the will of the Ancients. There was only one soul for each person, so if another was created in the exact image as someone who already existed, there would either be no soul left for them, or the soul would simply split in two, leaving each with only half.

But that was a dangerous path of thought too, Coran thought, pushing such recollections aside. He found it difficult to believe that Akira didn't possess a soul of his own, though he had been made expressly to take the place of another person. Even if he somehow didn't, it didn't really matter, and it was hardly something he would hold against him. He hadn't asked to be born, thrust into the image of another.

"I still don't like this." Akira said, biting down on his lip. "Can't we do something?"

"Not from this distance, I'm afraid." Coran shook his head. "We can only pray that everything will be alright."

Narrowing his eyes, Akira looked away from the screen with the cruiser, and back towards the one tracking Voltron. "That doesn't feel like enough."

"No," Coran admitted, "-I suppose it doesn't. But it's all we can do."

Akira said nothing to that, just clenched his fists. He didn't miss the way they trembled, though he wasn't sure if it was out of frustration or worry.

Both, perhaps.

"They'll be alright, lad." Coran reassured him, trying to bury his own rising feelings of anxiety and dread, and along with it, the fear that they very much wouldn't be. "You just have to have faith."

* * *

He'd been an idiot.

He had thought that having the rebel fleet along with him would be enough firepower to take down the Galra cruiser, but he'd been wrong. Far from taking it down, they couldn't even break the shield around the weapon that was attached to the cruiser, which he was almost positive had something to do with Naxzela.

He tried to take a cold comfort in the fact that Voltron had escaped, but he couldn't. He knew Voltron's capabilities. They wouldn't make it in time. Naxzela would go off, and they would die.

They would _all_ die.

Lifting his head, Kethe looked towards the shield. It taunted him, flickering a little every time a shot hit it, but he knew no damage was actually being done. Even if they concentrated all their firepower on one spot, it still wouldn't be enough. The Castle might be able to break through, but it was all the way on the other side of the galaxy. It couldn't get here in time.

But there was _one_ thing capable of breaking through the shield, and he was sitting right in it.

Drawing in a deep breath, Kethe tried to calm his thoughts even as he scrambled to think of another option. But there wasn't one. This was the only way.

Swallowing, he drew in another breath, and nearly choked on it. He didn't understand how Ulaz and Thace had been able to do it. How so many Blades before him had been able to do it- to face down the knowledge that they would have to give their life for the cause. Were they just as terrified as he was? Did they scream, curse their fate, or did they simply go silently into the night, knowing that their death would set the universe back towards the right path?

He didn't want to do it, but he couldn't think of another way. Voltron wouldn't get here in time.

This was the only way.

His hands shook, but his grip didn't falter. Turning his ship around before he could change his mind, Kethe angled it at the cruiser, at its strange weapon. In that moment, he knew that he wouldn't survive this- but if he didn't do something, then thousands of people would die.

His _friends_ would die.

Better him, he thought, better him than anyone else, especially his friends. Even if he was gone, Allura would be able to pilot the red lion in his place. He felt bad about leaving things unresolved with Akira, but maybe this was for the best.

With one hand, he switched off the coms. Matt had figured out what he was trying to do, and it wouldn't be long before everyone else tried to talk him out of it too. With the resolve that action had given him, he drew in what he thought would be his final breath, and set himself on a collision course.

He wondered if he'd see Ulaz again.

* * *

"Keith," Allura breathed, her eyes wide with horror, as the red lion roared with fury and despair, "- _no_."

* * *

He didn't know how he did it, but somehow, Kethe held it together until he reached the Castle of Lions. Some part of him realized that he was in shock, having been just seconds away from death before Lotor arrived, turning the tide in a single shot. He had just barely managed to pull up in time to avoid being engulfed in the ensuing fireball.

He was in a daze as he landed his stolen fighter in the main hangar, stumbling out of it like he was just learning to walk all over again. He didn't notice anyone enter, much less enter his personal space- but he definitely noticed the right hook. It served to snap him back to reality, yanking him out from his dazed state.

Taking in a long, shuddering breath, Kethe raised a hand to his cheek. It stung, but judging from the way he was nursing his fist, the punch had hurt Akira a lot more than it did him.

"What were you _thinking_!?" Akira demanded, for once putting his multitude of anxieties aside to just be _angry_. "You could have- you could have died!"

_Died_. He could have. He _could_ have died. He thought he knew that when he'd made up his mind, but hearing someone else say it brought it back home to him. He felt his legs give out underneath him, like they suddenly couldn't hold his weight anymore.

"I thought," he stammered, his voice barely above a whisper, "-I thought there was no other choice."

All of the anger vanished from Akira's face, as he sunk to the floor next to him, though not because his legs had given out. He hesitated at first, before he reached out, clinging to him in what wasn't quite a hug, but was a little more than a firm shoulder touch- like he wanted to do the former, but was too afraid to.

"It's okay," Akira mumbled into his hair, "-you're alive."

He _was_ alive. Slowly, Kethe nodded his head, taking in another shuddering breath, feeling his heart pound in his chest. The numbness faded from his limbs, though he simply left his arms by his side, uncertain if he should return the not-quite-an-embrace or not.

There was an invisible boundary between them that neither was sure if they should cross. Not yet.

"I didn't want to die." Kethe mumbled. "I just couldn't think of another way."

Akira didn't say anything to that, just nodded. After a few ticks, he pulled away- a bit abruptly too. He tensed, like he was expecting some sort of reprimand, but when nothing came, he quickly relaxed. Slowly getting to his feet, he silently offered his hand. Kethe took it, and although Akira stumbled a bit due to the extra weight, he managed to stay upright.

"Thank you." Kethe said, looking down at him. "You didn't have to come."

Akira just shook his head. "I don't want you to die either."

Kethe blinked, but before he got a chance to say anything more to him, the doors to the hangar flew open. Shiro was at the head of the pack, but the rest of the paladins were right behind him- though none of them were running quite as fast as their leader was. Akira barely got out of the way in time to avoid being caught in the crossfire, Shiro dragging him into a crushing embrace.

"Shi-"

"Please," Shiro whispered, "-please don't do that again."

Shiro's arms were uncomfortably tight around him. For a tick, the sensation thrust him to a different time and place, a fuzzy, half-recalled memory that barely existed beyond the feeling of an equally tight embrace and the smell of disinfectant. Then he was back on the Castle of Lions, the paladins clustered around him, trying to get in on the action.

Shiro's crushing embrace gave way a bit, just enough to let everyone else in. Akira hovered off to the side, looking a little bewildered, until Pidge grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him into the pile. He made a faint yelp, but quickly seemed to succumb to the pressure, one of his hands just faintly brushing against his side.

It was almost unbearably warm in the center of the group hug, even though his Blade armor was designed to regulate his body temperature. He'd had to coil his tail around his leg to keep it from being crushed, and he could barely even breathe. He was almost certain his knife sheath was pressed uncomfortably into someone's armored shin, just like someone's armored shin was pressed uncomfortably into him.

He'd never been more comfortable in his life.

"Okay," Kethe whispered, slowly closing his eyes and letting himself sink into the embrace, "-I won't."


End file.
